Comforting Him
by dem bones
Summary: Coffee with Kingsley goes as usual but Percy is still depressed over Fred's death and when George is severely injured and in need of surgery who will help him pull through? KS/PW SLASH


Title: Comforting Him

Author: dem bones

Genres: Hurt/Comfort/Romance

Pairing: Kingsley/Percy

Summary: Coffee with Kingsley goes as usual but Percy is still depressed over Fred's death and when George is severely injured and in need of surgery who will help him pull through?

Warnings: Slash.

A/N: This is written for Lexen as I've always wanted to write a Kingsley/Percy one-shot as a gift for introducing me to this awesome pairing.

At about the time there was acceptance of Fred's death within the Weasley family, Percy still couldn't accept it.

Every night since that day, his dreams were riddled with nightmares and only got worse as days went on.

Percy was nearly unrecognisable with how his eyelids had sunk on his face as if he had received two black eyes. His cheeks were sunken and he had lost alot of weight as well.

There was no way he'd be able to go to work and not induce worry on his collegues.

At some point that is when he began using glamours to conceal everything.

During this time however this wasn't the only thing that induced his insomnia. At some point Percy had fallen for the Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Just moments after Kingsley had become Minister from Magic, the duties he has once done for Minister Fudge he now was doing for Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Unfortunately their first meeting before this, the two weren't exactly friends. Percy had been a downright prick at the time. He remembered being so high strung and practically worshipping Minister Fudge's every word despite his pathetic plot to destroy Dumbledore just because he thought that Harry Potter was a liar.

Their meetings past this point were very awkward as Percy imagined Kingsley was still bitter over his high strung ideals and was just being polite.

But damn it, Percy couldn't stand it. He thought the war would soften the tension amongst them but it appeared he was gravely mistaken.

Most of the time he dropped by his office, Kingsley would always invite him to converse over coffee. There was always silence whenever this event occurred in his routine but Percy could hear the unspoken words and his silent judgement.

The man was probably thinking that Percy was a stubborn conceited man who took too much pride in his own abilities. He imagined that abandoning his family for his ambitions wasn't exactly an admirable trait to remember someone by. Perhaps Kingsley had some family of his own and that's why he was doing this in order to make Percy feel awkward.

He huffed with frustration, Percy just couldn't stand it. The man was always so stoic that Percy couldn't tell what Kingsley really thought of him and to be honest he was too afraid to ask.

Coffee that afternoon seemed even more confusing. Kingsley was staring at him with a shrewd glance. His brown eyes narrowing on Percy as if seeing through the glamours he had established earlier that morning. He was wearing a long orange coat, a blue shirt and black trousers instead of the robes which Fudge used to wear.

"Are you alright?" He asked with something akin to worry. "You look a little peakish."

Percy scoffed.

"I'm fine." He said.

"So how's your family doing?"

"They're managing."

His words however didn't seem to have Kingsley convinced.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Percy asked, feeling a little miffed at the disbelief in the Minister's eyes.

"Grief comes in stages. It never simply goes away."

"How do you know?" He whispered. The Minister was hitting a little close to home with his talk. Did he suspect that Percy was still dwelling on his younger brother's death?

"My brother's wife died several months ago. He witnessed his wife's final moments of life before he died and he had me help him cope through it." Kingsley explained. "I had to stop him before he nearly killed himself in grief. It will take time for your family to get over his death. Fred was a good man."

Kingsley's brown eyes looked up at meeting Percy's blue eyes.

"And you, Percy are also a good man."

Percy gulped at his scrutiny. He felt exposed by the scrutiny and very jittery. Something in his scrutiny seemed almost predatory and both fear with excitement merged with his blood at the revelation.

A part of him was relieved that Kingsley liked him but he wondered whether or not he could accept this friendship as it was? Percy wanted friendship with Kingsley but the thing he desired the most was a relationship with him. Could Percy sacrifice his happiness in order to try and be amiable to Kingsley?

For all Percy knew Kingsley might not even be gay. Percy did see him flirting with Professor Sinistra at the Ministry ball several weeks ago.

Wait! Percy didn't know Kingsley had a brother.

"You have a brother?" He asked with surprise.

"Richard Shacklebolt. He works as a hit wizard for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." Kingsley replied as he got up to fix another mug of coffee. Percy saw as he added some cream and sugar to his coffee.

As he took a sip of the coffee, he noticed Kingsley had developed as dark moustache from the coffee he was drinking.

The Minister's long fingers seemed to reach in his coat pocket to fish out a hankerchief in order to wipe off his moustache.

Percy watched enticed by the display. He noticed his nails were always seemed trimmed fairly neatly on his finger tips always clean and never attracting dirt. He wondered briefly if Kingsley had always been such a clean person as Percy had never remembered a time where he had felt so dirty.

He looked up startled by the sharp scrutiny of Kingsley's gaze. The man's sharp brown eyes seemed to sense there was something wrong.

"Are you feeling alright? You look a little peakish."

"Kingsley, what are you talking about?" Percy choked. He noticed the air was closing off from his lungs as he attempted to breath in with no success. It felt like there was something akin to a plug in the back of his throat.

He panicked as no matter how hard he tried the oxygen couldn't reach his lungs. There was a pain in his throat and it felt fruitless to stop it but damn it he just wished it would end and he didn't have to experience this pain of...dying.

Percy clung to his throat choking for air.

"Percy, what's the matter?" The older man shot in panic.

When he didn't respond, Kingsley stood up and reached out towards him.

He quickly stood up not liking the pity in the man's eyes. This turned out to be a mistake as he was suddenly overwhelmed by a sudden dizziness before everything went black.

Kingsley had quickly lunged for him before he collapsed on the floor.

Over the next several hours while he had one of his assistants taking over everything while he was gone, he put all his effort in getting Percy checked out at St. Mungos.

During this time, he began to dwell on the moments leading up to this point. Since Percy had been working under him, Kingsley had found himself instantly warming up to the lad. He thought during this time he had been earning the man's friendship during their coffee breaks.

At the back of his mind was disappointment. Did Percy not trust in Kingsley enough to find him as someone worthy to confide in?

He thought everything had been fine. During their afternoons drinking coffee, he found himself warming to the young man and Percy seemed to return the sentiments.

In fact he thought the young man might have fancied him as well. Kingsley certainly fancied him.

The sharp stern gaze of his blue eyes were fascinating to look at whenever he was scolding someone. In fact often times it was often he imagined the feel of his curly red locks of hair between his fingers.

He was also very smart and wasn't modest enough to hide it where his co-workers couldn't see it. This was something Kingsley admired in Percy. So it was disappointing that Percy had been silent about whatever had been bothering him.

If memory did serve however their coffee breaks were usually very awkward so it was very understandable that Percy didn't use that time to start a conversation and during this silence he would usually observe him quietly but just the thought that his co-worker had hidden something potentially life threatening made him feel a little grief and regret.

Approaching Percy's bedside, he was startled by the ghastly look of death on the man's face. He was pale with large black circles under his eyes. His cheeks were sunken as if were very sick.

Just then the medi-witch walked in.

"What's wrong with him?" Kingsley asked with surprise coupled with grave worry at the young man's appearance. The last he had seen him, Percy looked perfectly fine a little pale but now...

"He's malnourished, underweight and overexerted."

His fingers were stroking the locks of hair on Percy's face.

"I don't suppose you know a thing about his medical history."

Not much considering the two weren't close confidants but he did know about Molly and Arthur fairly well. Molly had suffered severe depression when she was younger. At the time the two of them had been close friends while attending Hogwarts. She often told stories about her grandmother's foul treatment of her and her twin brothers.

There were hardly any flaws in the wizarding medical system as most things like physical deformities, mortal viruses, poisons and harmful bacteria all had treatments. Even something as grave as a heart attack was easy to treat with a potion that unclogged human arteries.

The only flaws of this system was the inability of treating mental and psychological diseases that were often passed through genetics. At the time when there was research being conducted on treatments for genetic diseases through experimental magic it had been banned by the Ministry for fears of encouraging dangerous illegal genetic experiments on wizard, witches and the general muggle population so there had never been a treatment.

Depression was one of many mental illnesses that was untreatable by the magical community Kingsley realised as he told the medi-witch everything he knew.

"Do you think he's depressed?" He asked with concern.

"What might have given you that idea?" The Medi-witch asked.

"It's been months since it's happened but his younger brother died in the war."

"I assume you're talking about the second wizarding war?"

"Yes."

"It can take a little over a year for a person to get over their grief in losing a loved one but even then there is no guarantee that a person can deal with it even after that." The Medi-witch explained. "Mr Shacklebolt, I hope you'll take good care of Mr Weasley once he leaves this hospital."

"Alright."

KSPW

Everyday during the weeks, Kingsley would always drop by after work to visit Percy at the hospital.

At some point during his visits, Percy had woken up. There was a system in getting him to eat and sleep, a steady amount and slowly he began to recover.

During this time however it seemed his crush had began to develop into something more. When Kingsley had stroked the back on his hands one visit, Percy marveled how cool and soft they had felt on his skin. Coupled with the brown eyed gaze that seemed to swallow him whole, Percy simply couldn't stand him being around. He was afraid of himself.

What if Kingsley didn't return his feelings? Right now, the man just looked absolutely edible in his thin shirt. Percy could see the firm frame of his chest through his shirt, tempting and mouth watering.

These visits were becoming too overwhelming and Percy couldn't stand it. The man may have not been his friend but it didn't give him a right to jump the old sap.

He was taking a vacation to visit his relatives that's all there was to it.

After he was released from the hospital and Kingsley had offered him sick leave, Percy had immediately set to work packing his stuff.

He was a little unnerved when Kingsley had dropped by to visit two days ago but now while thinking about it perhaps the man had been worried. He certainly expressed his worry in infuriating ways though.

The moment the Minister had arrived at his home several days ago he had insisted on dropping by for dinner. Percy loved cooking and it usually wasn't an issue but he really hated having to cook for unexpected guests. For the rest of that evening he had to cook for the Minister who was hovering over him looking vigilantly at him from nearby.

The gesture was infuriating and it made Percy wonder whether or not he was doing it on purpose and for what reason? Was the Minister making sure he wasn't doing anything stupid? Was he there to be an overprotective arse? It frustrated him. Every now and then he'd even feel Kingsley breath on the back of his neck and it gave him an unpleasant tingling feeling.

If Percy didn't know better he'd say Kingsley was intending on staying with him just to make sure he was taking better care of himself. The only reason the Minister was here was out of some friendly worry?

After running into Kingsley upon making his way to the kitchen table and spilling the food he had heartily cooked it had been the last straw for Percy.

"Get out of my house." He screeched at the Minister not caring at the moment that he was yelling at his employer. Perhaps when he was in a better state of mind he would have rethought his actions but at the time he was just irritable.

He had visited the next day as well, scolding Percy over not getting some needed beauty sleep and Percy hadn't exactly been in a good mood kicking him before he could utter a word. That evening he had discovered Kingsley had been monitoring the floo after he had tried to contact George.

It didn't seem that Kingsley was aware of his plans though and Percy mustered that it might have been a good thing.

Seeing as Kingsley had wizards and witches monitoring his floo, Percy contacted George through owl post.

George was expecting him next week.

Days later when Percy had packed his things, he shrunk them and placed his shrunken suitcase in his pocket. Outside he began walking towards his home certain that Kingsley would detect him should he decide to use his wand to apparate there. Percy lived in a flat in London and the Leaky Cauldron was a couple of blocks to his right. Luckily George worked there during his morning hours because his real home was some distance away from the shop.

Percy only knew this from the letters he had written to George while working at his job. It was with excitement that George greeted him at the entrance of his shop.

"Hey Perce. Good to see you still single." George said with a chuckle. He embraced Percy patting him on the back unaware of the red blush on his brother's face.

Percy gazed around in awe at his younger brother's shop. It looked very crafty and ambitious for his younger brothers who had often found a past time in teasing other people.

"There's tea in the back of the shop." George said.

"Not poisoned I hope."

"What do you take me for? I'm not Professor Snape."

Percy gave George a sharp scrutiny.

"Ok, ok, alright. I might have put a potion in there that might change your hair colour to pink but that's it."

Percy chuckled.

"Good to know that you're my same old brother."

With a little giddiness in his step, Percy walked to the back of the store entranced by this homely area of the shop. It had a long comfy looking couch, a small table and a lamp.

He began lounging on it reading some of the books and magazines on the table until closing time. Eventually George walked inside looking a little weary from his work.

"Shall we head home?"

Percy was baffled at the exhaustion in his brother's tone nodding in agreement.

"Sure." He said.

George took a jar of floo powder from a shelf nearby and each of them stepped through the floo straight to George's home.

"So why are you really here?" George asked.

Percy blushed.

George's eyebrows rose with surprise. "I see. You fancy someone."

His eyes were narrowed looking very sly almost like Fred's.

Percy gulped nervously.

"Tell me." His younger brother begged.

It was insistant until Percy finally gave in.

"Fine, it's Kingsley Shacklebolt."

"You fancy a guy. How rad. I never pictured you doing something so rebellous, Perce."

Percy snapped.

"I wasn't doing it to be rebellous." He retorted.

"Ah."

George had fixed dinner serving it on two plates and setting it on the table. Both stood in such a matter that Percy was unable to distinguish which plate was intended for him. Normally it didn't matter anyway as first come, first serve was family tradition.

Percy took a bite of the food on his plate just as George whirled around.

"Don't touch that." George snapped just as Percy was about to take another bite.

The older man shoved his plate to the side.

"What's the matter?"

George seemed to calm once the plate was out of the way.

"That's mine. I was intending for that plate to be for me." He explained.

Percy was a little shaken by this when George had taken the other plate back into the kitchen.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking a little out of your portion. I still have to eat y'know." George said with amusement.

Percy grumbled with irritation when George had finally returned with his plate. Truthfully he couldn't see a single difference between the plate before and now. His brother was probably trying to pull another prank on him.

With caution, he began to pick at the food.

"It's not poisoned, Perce. Just eat it already." His younger brother said as he began gulping down the food heartily as if he had been starving all day.

"I fancy you could eat anything you could desire with the way you eat." Percy said. When they were kids, Percy remembered the two twins would often pile lots of food on their plate barely leaving any for Ron and Ginny.

George grinned.

After the two had finished dinner, George led Percy up to the guest room on the first floor. Percy glanced around the room for sometime. The only unique aspect of the sparse room was the window gazing out at the dark scenery. There was also a spring bed and a bedside table but that was about it.

Percy rummaged through his pocket to obtain his shrunken suitcase. He wondered if Kingsley had intended on visiting him again tonight. It certainly was a pity he wouldn't be there to welcome him. He grinned inwardly, surely realised it was a waste of time exerting his efforts on him when he could do more important stuff like Ministry errands.

Opening his suitcase, he took out his blankets, covers and sheets and started making up his bed. Percy climbed into bed laying on his back staring at the blank ceiling. He wondered how the rest of his family was coping with Fred's death. George certainly seemed fine.

Maybe he was the only one alone in this but with everyone's support, Percy was confident that he wasn't alone. Kingsley had been very supportive in an irksome way but it was still support. Part of him was glad and very lucky for it.

Drinking a swig of the dreamless sleep potion that he had placed on the bedside table, Percy curled up attempting to go to sleep. The effect was instantaneous as Percy fell asleep.

Deep in the depths of his sleep however there was a sense of doom. A precognition of tragedy, something tugging at the depths of his sleep.

Percy awoke at the sense that something was wrong. Bewildered for a moment, he realised he had awoke in the middle of the night and the silence was foreboding.

Cautiously he stepped out of bed and treked down the stairs to see what had woken him up. He was very surprised when he saw George sleeping with his arms curled around his head leaning against the table.

His poor younger brother must have been so tired running the store by himself.

Percy attempted to wake his younger brother. There was something wrong and he could feel it perhaps George would know what was going on.

His younger brother however didn't seem to stir under Percy's attentions. Percy tried waking him once more.

"George, wake up." he said trying to wake up his younger brother.

George however didn't seem to stir.

Percy pulled him away from the table something rock hard falling from his hands. He walked around George to see what his younger brother had dropped and was struck with horror.

It was a picture of Fred and George placed in glass frame. There was blood spattered on the picture where Percy assumed George was lying on.

Quickly Percy turned to examine his brother. There was blood trickling from mouth.

Was his other brother dead as well?

Panicking Percy ran to the living room looking for floo powder on the shelves before running to the fireplace to get ahold of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Unfortunately Kingsley's office was empty.

'Where would he be at this time of night?' Percy thought. 'He couldn't possibly be waiting at my flat could he?'

Percy contacted his home through the fireplace and was very surprised at seeing the Minister curled up on one of his comfy chairs with an afghan quilt spread out across his legs.

"Percy." Kingsley inquired sternly. "Where were you? You were supposed to get some rest. Where are you know?"

"I need your help." Percy said.

"What's the matter?"

"My brother." He stammered, feeling very distraught.

Kingsley immediately stood on his feet sensing something terrible had happened.

"I'll join you briefly." He said. Percy seemed a tad calmer comforted that Kingsley would join him. It was amazing how he had come to trust him with how little they knew each other. There was silence but from just this he had always trusted him.

Deep down he knew that Kingsley was picked because people like him and he was someone people could depend on in a time of crisis. He was an auror and he worked for Dumbledore. As an auror he probably had to come to aid to many of his co-workers when they were in trouble and he had good enough judgement to trust anyone without question. His loyalty was clearly unwavering even in this.

The consistancy of their coffee breaks conveyed this if it wasn't that obvious.

Kingsley joined Percy at George's home. The two approached George Weasley who was sitting in the same position that Percy had left him in.

The older man felt for his pulse.

"He's still alive." Kingsley said, turning towards Percy. "His pulse however is a little weak."

Quickly pushing past Percy, Kingsley contacted one of the medi-witches at St. Mungos. Percy didn't notice the woman approaching his brother. His only focus was on the blood trickling down his mouth like a spring of life.

Another woman joined her conjuring a stretcher for George. He didn't hear his hearty screams as he tried to reach for his brother. Strong hands held him back as they dragged his body away.

Percy sobbed breaking free of the strong embrace and punched the ground with all of his strength. This pain was nothing compared to his grief. He didn't think he could bear it if George died.

"Stop it." A deep voice cut through his thoughts.

A strong hand clasped his fist and Percy was bombarded with the warm sensation of someone embracing him from behind.

Those brown fingers that wrapped around his fists seemed misplaced standing out vividly in his mind.

'Kingsley.' Percy thought calmly. He turned quickly returning Kingsley's embrace sobbing into his firm left shoulder. The smell of his robes was a bypassing comfort, very fresh he noted in the back of his mind.

KSPW

These next several days, Percy dropped by George's room at St. Mungos. During his first night, he had wondered whether someone had tried to kill his brother.

Even after the war there was still death eaters up and about and with that were plenty of people who'd have wanted to kill his brother.

"The aurors are looking into it." Kingsley had told him about it the next day. Again it seemed he had joined him even at his worst times.

The medi-witch had eventually come clean about George's condition.

"He was poisoned...however this wasn't inflicted by a wizard or witch with an ill-intent." She said. "This poison was self-inflicted."

"What?" Percy asked in shock.

"Your brother poisoned himself with the intention of committing suicide."

"My brother wouldn't do something like that." He retorted.

"This poison that your brother has ingested is a potion known as subjecto bibentis. A poison that under normal circumstances wouldn't work even if the brewer had the intention of killing the drinker." She explained. "The intent of the brewer has no impact on the potion and it has no impact on the average drinker. You want to know why?"

Percy nodded.

"The average drinker of a potion usually doesn't have a death wish. As you see this poison only works on the drinkers who genuinely wish to die. It's surprisingly efficient for it's job as he would have been dead by that morning had you not received any help as the poison generally targets the organs of a person with the white blood cells of the organism of which the poison comes from sometimes causing cancerous legions on the organs. There is an antidote for the poison unfortunately that won't mend the damage already caused to his organs. According to my diagnosis he'll need to ingest several potions used to mend the damage done to his organs and even then there is a chance he could die if his body gives up on him."

Percy sighed. Just the thought of his brother dying made him anxious. He needed a drink. Quickly he ran from the room downstairs to get himself some coffee.

After fixing his coffee he was startled by the warm hand that clasped his shoulder. Kingsley, it seemed had got a cup of coffee himself.

"So how is he?" He asked.

"He's in severe condition. The medi-witch says he has a 50/50 chance of surviving even with the potions. He's poisoned himself."

"How?" Kingsley asked curiously.

"I don't know. He seemed fine yesterday. According to her, she said that the poison only lasts 3 hours at most and I only awoke at 1 in the morning. She said it was a potion that could only affect those who wish for death."

"He wasn't acting too strangely at the time?" Kingsley asked sipping his coffee, his left arm leaning against the wall.

His words reminded him of the dinner from earlier but Percy was certain they had ate around 7 pm around dinner time. He took his time and explained it to the older man anyway.

Carefully Percy tried to piece it together in his head. After dinner he had unshrunk his things and had made his bed. Dreamless sleep always had to be timed at the exact hours as the medi-witches themselves had told Percy that the next dose always had to be at least 7 hours away from the last dose. Percy had taken dreamless sleep at 12 at night. He usually took 30 minutes to make his bed and if it that was true than George couldn't have possibly poisoned himself if dinner was just 30 minutes ago.

Only 1 hour and a half had passed. Percy explained this to Kingsley.

"You don't think you could have taken a little longer? It is believed that constant doses of dreamless sleep do cause disorientation." Kingsley explained. "It's just weird to me about everything you said about what happened during dinner. You ate from his plate and he got mad at you, your family usually has no such rules as concerns to food so why would he care what you ate?"

"That is true and he did say something about removing a portion of the meal on my plate yet I didn't notice much of a difference once he returned with it."

"How much have you told him about?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Percy asked.

"Judging by your state of mind, George could very well have been protecting you from the effects of the potion."

"You could be right." Percy said. All this time he had thought nothing of it but when George was asking the real reason Percy was staying with him, Percy realised that the real question George had been asking was whether or not he was feeling alright. He mustered a guess that George must have been clued in on his depression from the very beginning.

"I'm guessing that George must have taken your plate in order to add the antidote to the poison he had placed in his food." Kingsley said.

"You're very clever aren't you?" Percy scowled, huffing before taking another sip of his coffee.

"Hardly above average."

"Modest aren't you. It's probably one of the reasons why I like you."

"You like me?" Kingsley asked.

'Shit.' Percy thought. The words had slipped out before he could even think it through.

"You don't like me?" He asked in return.

"I've always liked you." Kingsley said.

The younger man was shocked.

"As friends."

"Alot more than just friends."

Percy clasped his hands as they made their way back to George's room.

That evening was the surgery. Anxiously Percy clung to his last resort clasping onto Kingsley's large hand as they sat anxiously at the seats in one of uninhabited rooms in the hospital.

"It will be alright." Kingsley offered in comfort.

"I know." Percy replied turning and reaching around Kingsley's neck to plant a kiss on his lips. The older man grabbed Percy by the back on his head, his fingers digging into his red curly hair, his teeth biting into the younger man's lower lip.

The two drew apart and Kingsley removed Percy's glasses from his face.

"Let's try this again." He said ravishing Percy once more causing the younger man to gasp. Slyly Kingsley's tongue shimmied between his inviting lips.

Never in his whole life did Percy ever feel so complete. Even if things got dire Percy knew it would be alright if Kingsley was around.


End file.
